Any new interest in Cell based computing?

F

fireshot

Newcomer
Is it me or Cell takeup rate slow? It seems as if Mercury Sys were the first and the last outsider to announce Cell based merchandise and it was some time ago. Are they in development or do they have finished products?

What of hidef players and other electro commodities? Toshiba HD-A1 used Intel and Broadcom chips. Can we have a recap of places which fits Cell based computing?

The lingering doubt in the back of our minds not withstanding PS3, is Cell based computing a niche deadend as speculated by aaronspink? Cell newcomer luster dull with every non event.
 
fireshot said:
Is it me or Cell takeup rate slow? It seems as if Mercury Sys were the first and the last outsider to announce Cell based merchandise and it was some time ago. Are they in development or do they have finished products?

What of hidef players and other electro commodities? Toshiba HD-A1 used Intel and Broadcom chips. Can we have a recap of places which fits Cell based computing?

The lingering doubt in the back of our minds not withstanding PS3, is Cell based computing a niche deadend as speculated by aaronspink? Cell newcomer luster dull with every non event.
Click to expand...

Currently only IBM and Mercury have cell based products on the market , Raytheon may be using Cell also , they where highly interested in it last time I checked .
 
I suspect price, both in terms of development and purchase cost, is in favor of a cheap intel right now for most devices. As PS3 production gets underway the Cell chip will become cheaper and more attractive, and programming for it will get easier with more IBM support and more industry experience, codecs released, and so on. Power consumption is also interesting for many devices, and they may well wait with announcing / releasing stuff until we get the 65nm Cell, which is potentially coming sooner with an additional 40% power reduction thanks to new IBM technology.
 
Of course it's not "catching on"... It will take time, the thing hasn't even been released on its most famous platform (PS3) to prove itself, obviously if things get better, they will only get better after people have seen what Cell can actually do and how Sony can cope with demand.
 
From what I understand of the chip, it's designed truly to be a massively networked/connected chip. Those markets typically don't spend oodles on unproven tech. Give it time.
 
london-boy said:
Of course it's not "catching on"... It will take time, the thing hasn't even been released on its most famous platform (PS3) to prove itself, obviously if things get better, they will only get better after people have seen what Cell can actually do and how Sony can cope with demand.
Click to expand...
I'd say the only disappointment to date is no announced Cell CE goods from Sony or Toshiba. Early days and they may be poking around with software at the moment, using established methods for their latest releases, but if Cell is to get anyway there'll need to showcase some CE applications in the not too distant future, say next year's new TV models.
 
london-boy said:
Of course it's not "catching on"... It will take time, the thing hasn't even been released on its most famous platform (PS3) to prove itself, obviously if things get better, they will only get better after people have seen what Cell can actually do and how Sony can cope with demand.
Click to expand...

Take a look on IBM forums the demand is there from small companies and of course enthusiast and not to mention couple of universities for a cell pci express based card.

And speaking of Raytheon apparently they will be using cell also


http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2006/tc20060208_094930.htm

So 3 military contractors( Mercury also develops military hardware right ? ) are now using/ going to be using cell , that's not a bad start now is it ?
 
Shifty Geezer said:
I'd say the only disappointment to date is no announced Cell CE goods from Sony or Toshiba. Early days and they may be poking around with software at the moment, using established methods for their latest releases, but if Cell is to get anyway there'll need to showcase some CE applications in the not too distant future, say next year's new TV models.
Click to expand...

Wasn't Toshiba planning to put cell into their TV's ?
 
Robert.L said:
Take a look on IBM forums the demand is there from small companies and of course enthusiast and not to mention couple of universities for a cell pci express based card.

And speaking of Raytheon apparently they will be using cell also


http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2006/tc20060208_094930.htm

So 3 military contractors( Mercury also develops military hardware right ? ) are now using/ going to be using cell , that's not a bad start now is it ?
Click to expand...

not bad at all - considering that any sell of cell outside ps3 is icing on the cake for sony.
 
Shifty Geezer said:
Supposedly, but their new 1080p TVs aren't using it.
Click to expand...

Why would a tv need cell unless it was net enabled and at that point could it not use a much cheaper cpu to perform the same function?
 
TheChefO said:
Why would a tv need cell unless it was net enabled and at that point could it not use a much cheaper cpu to perform the same function?
Click to expand...

Image processing on flat screen TVs these days is very imprtant, and Cell seems to be suited very well for this task. If they can get it to run at low temperatures, it would be perfect, as it's a powerful chip and in the long run it will be very cheap, due to economies of scale.
 
london-boy said:
Image processing on flat screen TVs these days is very imprtant, and Cell seems to be suited very well for this task. If they can get it to run at low temperatures, it would be perfect, as it's a powerful chip and in the long run it will be very cheap, due to economies of scale.
Click to expand...

true - it would be able to handle the task with ease but wouldn't a dedicated dsp be significantly cheaper to produce for that use because of the smaller die size?
 
It's a bit difficult to have a good takeup given they're not shipping them in quantity yet.

I think you'll find there's a lot going on in the background but very little has been made public yet. Even when it is announced much of this may never appear in public simply because it'll only appear in specialist publications.

The market for ARM processors is now nearly 10x bigger then that for x86 processors but you wouldn't know much if anything about that unless you happened to read the right stuff.
 
TheChefO said:
true - it would be able to handle the task with ease but wouldn't a dedicated dsp be significantly cheaper to produce for that use because of the smaller die size?
Click to expand...


Cell is not just one configuration. Cell can be made in any configuration needed, with as many SPEs as needed, so a Cell chip with 2 or 4 SPEs would be just fine and maybe still a bit overkill for TV image processing.

We'll see...
 
ADEX said:
The market for ARM processors is now nearly 10x bigger then that for x86 processors but you wouldn't know much if anything about that unless you happened to read the right stuff.
Click to expand...

interesting - who are the biggest players in that market?
 
I was wondering this same question myself recently, and sort of answered it myself as well. IBM's homegrown Cell push will initially be through the Bladecenter H initiative, and they have been gauging interest up until now for Cell blades. The Cell blades themselves are supposed to start shipping later this summer, so I imagine we'll have to wait until then to get a good sense of public interest.

Like Shifty though, I'm almost more interested to know when the chip will start making it's way into CE goods.

I imagine that the glowing Berkeley paper recently released on Cell will pique interest in the chip as well.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top